


Her Alexander What?

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Episode Tag, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-03-12
Updated: 2002-03-12
Packaged: 2019-05-15 14:59:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14792696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: This is Josh's POV of "My Alexander Hamilton".





	Her Alexander What?

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

 

**Her Alexander What?**

**by:** Dee 

**Category/Pairing:** Josh/Donna  
**Rating: MATURE**  


**Notes:** This is Josh's POV of "My Alexander Hamilton". Thanks to Chris in Seattle for planting the seed in my head.  
  


Alexander Hamilton? What the hell was that supposed to mean? I am absolutely a Jeffersonian. And what was she thinking pulling a stunt like that without at least checking with me. Of course I would have said no, but she should have check with me first. 

"Sir?"

I looked up at the waiter who was standing by the table and realized I hadn't even seen him approach the table. I needed to focus. I was on a date. "Uh�"

"He wants to know what you want to eat," Amy informed me. Okay, she was annoyed. I was going to focus.

"I'm having the crab cakes. I hear they are amazing."

Right, crab cakes. Bobby's famous crab cakes. That Donna loved. I couldn't eat the crab cakes. "I'll have the special."

"Yes, sir."

The waiter left and I followed him for a while so I wouldn't have to acknowledge the fact that she was smirking at me. Except for the fact that she didn't stop and I didn't want her to think I was checking the waiter out. "What?"

"Do you have any idea what the special is?"

"Of course I do. That's why I ordered it." Sure I was lying and worse she knew it, but I wasn't ready to go down without a battle. That's what I did. I battled. Donna didn't battle. Donna handed me my sword and patted my head with a damp cloth when I needed it. She didn't go out to the battlefield with me or without me. Only this time she had. And she did it to save Leo. I could love her for that alone. 

"You know what else is good here are the deserts," I said hoping to turn things around. I was here with Amy. I wanted to be here with Amy. It wasn't fair to be sitting across from her and thinking about the scene that just happened outside. 

"Really?"

"Yeah, Donna likes the chocolate cake."

"You and Donna eat here a lot?"

"No. No, we usually order out if we're working late. You can only take pizza and Chinese so far."

"I see. So this is like a treat for you guys."

"Yeah," I smiled thinking about the last time we ordered from here. It was this past summer and we were knee deep in polling numbers and suddenly Donna stood up and thrust her fist into the air and shouted crab cakes at the top of her lungs. I got the message. "Well when Donna wants to treat herself. She makes me order the cake, but then she eats it. Something about less calories that way."

"Uh huh." Amy reached over at the seat that was pushed up against our booth and moved it back a space.

"What are you doing?"

"I thought if Donna was going to sit here between us she might like a little more space."

"Amy�"

"You told me you weren't dating her."

"I'm not," I said. "I'm not," I repeated when she looked at me skeptically.

"But you were dating her."

"No. I've never dated her. I'm not dating her." I stopped myself before I said I was never going to date her. I'm not sure why. 

"What happened outside?"

Nothing I'm going to tell you about, I thought initially. Then I realized that I'd been seeing this woman for a few weeks now and we'd slept together twice. If this was going to be a relationship, I was going to have start sharing my life with her. That's what she would expect. "Nothing."

Amy nodded and I knew that wasn't the best answer.

"Donna came by for some take out. She ran into an ex-boyfriend, he was drunk. I put him in a cab. She reminded me that the cake was good and left. End of story."

"Can I ask you a series of questions?" 

"Is this an interview?" I responded getting slightly annoyed. I had shared. Hadn't I just shared?

"You said Donna had an ex-boyfriend."

"Yes."

"How long did they date?"

"Not long. He wasn't really a boyfriend, I guess. Just a guy. A mistake." I felt my stomach churn and figured I must be hungry. How long did it take to cook a damn special anyway?

"Uh huh. And this happened when?"

"A couple of months ago. Why are you asking me this?"

"When was the last time you dated someone J?"

Was this a trick question? I reached across the table and took her hand. "You don't remember last week. I'm crushed." I smiled in that oh so humble way of mine.

She smiled back, but it didn't reach her eyes. She also pulled her hand back and brushed her hair behind her ear. "No, I'm serious. I was seeing someone for a few months this past summer, but it didn't work out. When was the last time before me that you went on say � more than one date with a woman?"

See this is the problem with women. She was leading me somewhere with these questions, but I couldn't see the end game. If she was a lawyer and these questions were regarding the President's MS I would be all over them. But this was about dating and I guess Donna, only since I had never done that I was pretty sure I couldn't answer this question in a way that would get me in trouble. At least that's what I was going with.

"I don't know � a while."

"A year?"

Well, now she was just making me sound pathetic. "No more like three years," I admitted. "But can we subtract the time I spent recovering from a gunshot wound?"

"You mean when Donna was living with you."

Oooh. She was good. "Donna wasn't living me. She was �"

"Living with you," Amy reiterated.

"I'd been shot, Amy," I argued. "It's not like it was a fun time for either of us."

"I'm sure it wasn't. That's not my point."

"Then what the hell is your point because I've got to say you're the one who keeps trying to put Donna between us, not me."

She shook her head and laughed. She wasn't laughing at me, was she? That would be bad.

"You just don't get it, J. Like I said, you're the kind of guy who needs to be hit on the head."

"So hit me on the head and tell me what this third degree is about."

"You don't date for three years. Your, and I use the word loosely, assistant, goes out on a couple of dates with a guy, and suddenly weeks later you're dating me."

"Because I just met you."

"You've known me for seven years."

"But I only recently just saw you again," I countered.

"You saw me last year at the NOW fundraiser, then again last spring at Democrat Women's Caucus event thing."

"I was feeling you out back then," I tried.

She was laughing again. "No you weren't. Face it, J you've got a thing for her. And as funny and smart as you are, and as much as I enjoy our debates I don't have the time to waste time with a guy who is not all there for me."

"You do what you think you have to do, Amy but I'm telling you there is nothing going on between me and Donna."

She gathered her purse and coat and stood up looking down at me. "Why?"

"What?" I snapped tired of all the questions.

"Why? She's cute, she's single, you're single, you have history. It's obvious you care for each other given the fact that she was the one who took care of you two years ago and you felt the need to rush to her defense against her big bad ex-boyfriend. You're telling me you've never made a pass at her."

"No."

"Think about that, J."

She left and a second later the waiter returned with her crab cakes and some mound of large fish that in a million years I would never have ordered. "Can I get the crab cakes to go?"

I hit the buzzer and waited.

"Hello."

"It's me."

"What are you doing here?"

"I have crab cakes." 

There was a significant pause, and I know she considering what was on the table.

"You should be out with Amy."

"I also have cake."

I heard the door click open immediately. She was waiting at her apartment door with a smile and tried not to be too eager when she grabbed the goody bag.

I followed her in, gave my obligatory hiss to the cats which sent them scurrying and searched the apartment for her roommate. 

"She's out," Donna said knowing who I was looking for.

I sat down on her couch and in a minute she joined me with a plate filled with both cakes. "Should you put them on the same plate like that?"

"It's okay. It's all cake. I just need to keep the tartar sauce away from the chocolate sauce."

I nodded. It sounded logical.

"Why are you here?"

"I figured it sucked for you that you didn't get to have your cake and eat it too."

She barely snorted. Okay so it wasn't that funny. She dug into the cakes, but didn't take her eyes off me.

"No seriously," she muttered around a bite. 

"Amy dumped me."

She swallowed. "Why?"

"You know everyone keeps asking me that and it's starting piss me off."

"Okay," she shrugged and dug back into the crab cakes.

"I don't know why she dumped me." I mean I did, but I didn't. I wasn't dating Donna. I said as much. That should have been enough. Instead she was gone and I spent the whole way over here wondering why I had never made a pass at Donna.

"We don't seem to have a lot of luck in this department. I've come to accept that. You should do. It's very freeing."

I decided to take a different approach. "How come you've never made pass at me?"

She had forked a spoonful of chocolate cake into her mouth and was looking at me as if I had just grown another eye. "You're my boss."

"Right! And you're my assistant."

"Right. And we work for the White House," she said slowly mocking my statement of the obvious.

"Donna if I wasn't your boss�"

"But you are."

"Yeah but if I wasn't�"

"But you are."

"Yeah but�"

"Josh. You're my boss. I'm your assistant. We've kept it this way for four years."

"Are you saying we've kept it this way on purpose?" See. I could bring the questions.

"I'm saying� boy these crab cakes are good."

"Donna," I growled. "That's not an answer."

She put her plate down on the coffee table and turned to me. "What's this about, Josh?"

I could tell her. I could say Amy dumped me because she thinks I have feelings for you. But then the next question might be, Do you? And I wasn't ready to answer that. But the question is why? Why didn't I want to push this? Why had I never made a pass at her? Maybe she would tell me.

"Why haven't I ever made a pass at you?"

"Maybe you're not attracted to me."

I shook my head. "You're cute."

"Maybe it's because you recognize my underlying lack of self confidence that I try to overcome everyday and it turns you off.

"No. I know you think you don't have confidence, but you're actually wrong about that."

"Maybe it's because I never finished college and you don't think I'm smart enough."

That surprised me. "You think that? You think I don't think you're smart?"

She lifted a shoulder. "Please refer to lack of self confidence problem previously mentioned."

"Donna, I think you're smart. I think you're wise and witty and I think you see things about people that others don't."

She smiled. "That's nice."

But it still didn't answer the question. So I thought she was cute, and witty, and smart and wise. I knew from past experience that she was also caring but at the same time strong. She understood me like no other woman I've ever known before. So why have I never pursued any kind of a relationship with her. 

"Stop thinking about it, Josh."

"But�"

"If you keep thinking about it, you'll figure out the answer and once you do we'll have to deal with that."

This annoyed me. "You mean you know the answer."

She nodded.

"But you're not going to tell me."

"No."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to finish my crab cakes. Want half?"

Since I wasn't going to get an answer, I figured what the hell. We shared crab cakes and chocolate cake and a bottle of wine. We watched an old black and white movie, which I hated, but Donna insisted on. I went home before midnight and was told that she would in fact call me the following morning. The whole time racking my brain to figure out why I've never once, not in all this time, made a pass at her. 

I was sure of one thing though. When or if the answer came to me, it was probably going to change my life.

The End.  



End file.
